A senior officer from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has refuted allegations of deliberate withholding of CCTV footage related to the claims of unjustified strip-searches made by three women. In a statement, Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods asserted that GMP would fully cooperate with any review ordered by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

The allegations came to light after three women reported incidents involving the police, with one of them claiming to have experienced drugging and sexual assault during her detention in 2021. In response to the seriousness of the claims, Mayor Burnham ordered a review of their cases.

The situation escalated further when it was revealed that there were two hours of police footage “missing” during the period of detention of one of the women. To address these concerns, Mayor Burnham enlisted the help of former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird, who is also a lawyer, to conduct an independent investigation into the matter.

GMP had previously referred the allegations to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on two occasions. Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods confirmed that the force was continuing to cooperate with the IOPC regarding the second referral, and the professional standards branch had made contact with the complainant.

Addressing the issue of the missing CCTV footage, Mr. Woods clarified that GMP had made efforts to retrieve the two one-hour segments from the custody cell. However, he stated that one disc had been corrupted, and by the time the issue was identified, the parent footage on the servers had already been overwritten according to standard procedures.

He reassured the public that there was no deliberate attempt to withhold the footage. The force had “recovered and secured the servers,” and digital forensics professionals were currently attempting to recover the outstanding hours.